Kathmandu, February 25

Stockbrokers have warned that they will launch protest programmes against the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) over the comment made by the board’s chairman in a parliamentary meeting last week.

Issuing a press statement today, Stock Brokers Association of Nepal (SBAN) has said that it will first launch publicity programmes to put pressure on SEBON. If the stock market regulator still fails to address their concerns then SBAN will launch stringent protest programmes, as per the statement.

Earlier, SEBON Chairman Rewat Bahadur Karki, in a meeting of the Finance Committee under the Federal Parliament, had said that the stockbrokers were the main reason for the country’s secondary market not being able to develop as expected.

Refuting Karki’s statement, SBAN said the SEBON chairman’s comments are false and baseless. SBAN added that stockbrokers were always ready to help secondary bourse in any possible manner they could.

Meanwhile, SEBON today held a meeting with Chief Tax Officer of Inland Revenue Department (Battisputali Office) Tanka Nath Poudel, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Stock Exchange Chandra Singh Saud, representatives of CDS and Clearing Ltd, Merchant Bankers’ Association, different investor groups and also other individual investors regarding the Permanent Account Number (PAN) provision the government is about to introduce on March 15 for share transactions.

As per Karki, during the meeting stockbrokers raised objections against PAN provision that is going to be implemented.

Representatives of Nepal Investors Forum, Share Investors Association of Nepal and Nepal Pujibazar Laganikarta Sangh who were present at the discussion stated they were not totally against the PAN provision. Their only concern was that it should first be implemented in a gradual manner across the country and on a voluntary basis.

Meanwhile, Karki mentioned that the PAN provision would be applied mandatorily as the government has already included it in its policies and programmes for the current fiscal year.